Last Monday (Jan 13, 1992) the State Senate and State Assembly passed A634/S3758. Today (Sunday, Jan 19, 1992) at noon Gov. Jim Florio signed A634/S3758 into law! --------------------------- This is a victory for all! This is the result of EIGHT years of dedicated work by many, many people in the state. The recent letter- and phone-campaigns that many of you participated in were very successful. Everyone is now asked to call their state representatives and the Governor (+1 609-292-6000) to thank them. This bears repeating: Call the Governor with the same ferver as you made the other calls. (NOTE: his office is closed for the MLK holiday, call starting Tuesday). --------------------------- What is A634/S3758? Well, it gives gays/lesbians/bis of New Jersey the civil rights that they deserve. In other words, it's a bill that makes it illegal to discriminate against people for being STRAIGHT, GAY, LESBIAN, or BISEXUAL (or being PERCEIVED as so) in hiring/promotions, financial loans and credit, or housing. The following exemptions are made: Religious institutions are exempt. Religious-owned institutions are exempt. Residences that rent fewer than 3 rooms are exempt. No affirmative action programs (quota-based hiring) are mandated. --------------------------- To bring it to a personal level, this means that last week your boss could have brought you into his office and said, "We just found out that you're gay (or straight!) and even though such things don't effect your job performance, we're firing you." or you could have gotten a call from a bank saying, "We're turning down your loan application because we found out that you're bisexual" or you land- lord could kick you out on the street solely because you are a lesbian. In all those situations you wouldn't be able to take the person to court because what they did was 100% legal under New Jersey law. Well, as of noon today, those things are all illegal and you have recourse. --------------------------- Now, here's that in a more legally worded manner: FACT SHEET FOR ASSEMBLY BILL A634/S3758 Sponsor: D. Bennett Mazur, 37th District A634/S3758 amends the New Jersey "Law Against Discrimination" and companion laws, making it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of affectional or sexual orientation in the following areas: A. Employment o By making it unlawful for an employer to refuse to hire, to discharge, or, to discriminate because of one's affectional or sexual orientation. o By making it unlawful for a labor union to exclude from membership or training programs, to expel or discriminate because of one's affectional or sexual orientation. o By making it unlawful for an employment agency to make any limitations, specifications, or to discriminate because of one's affectional or sexual orientation. B. Public Accommodation o By making it unlawful for an owner, lessee, proprietor, manager, agent or employee of any place of public accommodation to refuse, withhold from or delay any accommodation, advantage, facility, or privilege or to discriminate because of one's affectional or sexual orientation. C. Housing o By making it unlawful to refuse to sell, rent, lease, assign or sublease any real property because of one's affectional or sexual orientation. D. Credit or Loans o By making it unlawful for any person, bank, banking organization, mortgage company, insurance company or other financial institution to discriminate for a loan or extension of credit because of one's affectional or sexual orientation. The Law Against Discrimination is amended by inserting the words "affectional or sexual orientation" where it states: "...because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, marital status, liability for service in the Armed Forces of the United States, or nationality." Affectional or sexual orientation is defined as: "Male or female, heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality by inclination, practice, identity or expression, having a history thereof or being perceived, presumed or identified by others as having such an orientation." A634/S3758 is limited in scope as it does *not* require affirmative action programs to recruit, employ persons solely based on their affectional or sexual orientations. Also, the bill does *not* apply to churches or church affiliated institutions. -- Tom Limoncelli -- tal@plts.uucp (play) -- tal@warren.mentorg.com (work) "What was the topic?" "It was `Do Men Dominate Conversations'." "What did the men say?" "They demanded that it wasn't so." "What did the women say?" "They couldn't get a word in edge-wise."